Although spontaneous abortions, or miscarriages, are common, there has been very little research on their psychological effects. The proposed study will identify victims' reactions to miscarriage and strategies which victims feel help them to cope with pregnancy loss. The research will involve structured interviews with fifty women who have had miscarriages within the past year. Questions that respondents will be asked will include who or what they consider responsible for their miscarriage, what emotions they have felt since the abortion, whether they are receiving emotional support from husbands, friends, family, and medical personnel, and how much information they feel they know about miscarriage. Dependent measures will include a standardized depression measure, a self-rating of coping, and estimate of the likelihood of eventually having a successful pregnancy, and an inventory of coping strategies. Hypothesized predictors of difficulty coping with miscarriage include: having had a previous miscarriage; having had no successful pregnancies; being older or in poor health; blaming oneself for one's miscarriage; feeling that one is not receiving good emotional support from others; and feeling uninformed about miscarriage. The findings of this study will enhance researchers' understanding of how people cope with negative events and will provide practical knowledge about reactions to miscarriage for both medical personnel and victims.